Live Coverage Of The First Democratic Debate

It’s usually pretty hard to judge the “winners” of the debates immediately after the event is over — much less partway through. But we’re roughly a third of the way through the Democratic debate, and my editors are asking me what I think. My answer: So far, I think the debate has mostly preserved the status quo. Clinton is not dominant, exactly, and she’s playing a lot of defense. But she’s easily the most polished candidate on stage — she’s pretty good at this — and has the message that’s likely to resonate most broadly with Democratic voters. Sanders is rough around the edges — take that answer on guns, for instance — but still has plenty of appeal to the liberalmost half of the room. The other three candidates are flatlining; if this was Martin O’Malley’s one chance to break out, he hasn’t taken it so far. But we’ll see; I’m prepared for the second and third periods to be more decisive.

The Democratic candidates just discussed Benghazi, but Democrats nationwide are very split about whether we should be talking about Hillary Clinton’s handling of that incident. In a May 2015 ABC News/Washington Post poll, 51 percent of Democrats said it was a legitimate issue, while 43 percent it was not.